The North East is to get two new privately run hospital units offering free NHS operations.

Tyneside is to get a major new medical factory offering general surgery to reduce waiting times. The location has yet to be decided but Newcastle or Gateshead are likely options.

And North Tyneside will be visited by a special mobile eye surgery unit to cut waits for cataract operations.

Health Secretary, John Reid, said the new diagnostic and treatment centres would cut waiting times for patients in areas where they were at their worst. There will be 22 fixed treatment centres and two mobile units.

The Tyneside centre will be run by Mercury Health and will concentrate particularly on hernia repair operations, hip and knee replacements, and breast surgery.

The mobile unit, which will visit North Tyneside will also move around the rest of the North East.

The region's primary care trusts are expected to pay the centres up to &#xA3;280,000 annually. It is hoped the two centres will do thousands of operations a year.

The mobile centre visiting North Tyneside will be run by Netcare UK.

The new units have been strongly opposed by health staff trade unions.